


Circus

by 0bviousLeigh



Series: Yuma is a Girl [33]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Gender or Sex Swap, Other, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 15:59:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12891459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0bviousLeigh/pseuds/0bviousLeigh
Summary: Yuma feels like her school is slowly turning into a three-ring circus.





	Circus

Yuma kicks up her board and lands on the handrail. “Kattobingu!” She screams, and as she nears the bottom of the rail, she jumps…and lands on her butt.

“Damnit,” she says from the floor, watching her board bang into a garden wall. Nearly had it that time.

“Look out!” Calls a boy’s voice, but before Yuma can move, a body collides with her.

“OYE!” Yuma screams as she tries to untangle herself from the boy, “Don’t you know how to walk? Why didn’t you move?!”

The boy sits up—he’s kind of cute, in an adorable sense, not a hot sense—and he gasps. “You’re Tsukumo Yuma!”

“I am,” Yuma says. “Do I know you?”

“You’re the WDC champion!” He says. “I’m Shingetsu Rei, I’m a huge fan of yours!”

“Really?” Yuma says. She looks at his uniform. “You go to my school?”

“I just transferred!” Rei says, “I was so happy to learn I was going to the same school as you.”

Yuma gets up and retrieves her board. “We’ll both be late if we don’t get a move on.”

Rei gasps. “Oh no, I can’t let you be late!” He grabs her arm. “I know a short cut!”

“How d’you know a short cut, you said you just transferred,” Yuma says, snatching her arm back. “Now I know a short cut, and it’s fun. Follow me!”

She leads Rei through the back alleys of Heartland. They pop into a restaurant and snag some breakfast, they hop fences, they run faster than they probably should, and they arrive at school just as the bell is ringing.

“Told you it was fun,” Yuma laughs.

Rei leans over, panting. “I think my way would have been shorter,” he wheezes.

Yuma thumps him on the back. “Let’s get you checked in.”

It turns out, Rei is in Yuma’s homeroom. She’s delighted and takes him by the arm, showing him the way. “I’m actually a year older than everyone in class,” Yuma says, “But I missed a year of school while I was in a duel gang.”

“A duel gang?!” Rei gasps, “Why?”

“Because I was in a dark place,” Yuma says, “And since you were a trouper on my shortcut, you don’t have to use honorifics with me.” She and Rei get to the classroom, and Yuma shows Kitano-sensei her late pass. “We have a new student!” She says.

Rei skips to the front of the class. “Ta-da! My name is Shingetsu Rei and I’m a big fan of Yuma!”

“Oh, you make me blush,” Yuma says.

The morning passes and at lunch, Yuma invites Rei to sit on the roof with her and her friends. He greets them all enthusiastically, and Yuma pinches his cheek.

“You’re adorable!” She coos.

“Yuma, isn’t Ryoga enough for you?” Tetsuo asks.

Yuma rolls her eyes. “I can think someone is adorable without wanting to jump them, Tetsuo. Rei is just cute! Like a puppy.”

Rei pouts. “A puppy?”

“Yeah, like Tokunosuke,” Yuma says.

“What kind of puppy is Tokunosuke?” Cathy asks, flashing her nails.

Yuma hums. “A chihuahua. And Rei is a golden retriever.”

Tokunosuke chokes and Rei laughs, “Okay, I can accept that.”

There’s a commotion from the school yard and everyone leans over the edge of the roof to see what’s going on.

“Oh, he’s here!” Takashi cries, “Daisuke Katagiri!”

“That pro?” Yuma asks. “What’s he doing here?”

“You were asleep when we learned about it,” Kotori says, “He’s come to give a special lecture.”

Yuma whistles. “Dang, that’s nice of him. At least the girls are focused on him and not my boyfriend.”

“You going to duel him?” Tetsuo asks, nudging Yuma.

“Heck no,” she says. “Maybe I’d ask for his autograph, but someone else can duel today.”

Afternoon classes are cancelled so the students can gather in the gym and watch Katagiri duel. He takes on five students at once, including Tetsuo, and defeats them all in one turn. He answers questions about his dueling style, and gets swarmed by girls, but all too soon the exhibition is over.

“That was cool,” Yuma says. “Too bad he had to leave so soon.”

Kotori nods. “Yeah, you didn’t even get his autograph.”

Rei leaps to his feet. “I’m going to see if I can get it for you,” he tells Yuma, and then he takes off.

Yuma frowns. “Well, let’s go get our stuff and then see if Rei meets up with us.”

But as Yuma, Tetsuo, and Kotori prepare to leave for the evening, Rei is nowhere to be found. Yuma heaves a sigh. “Let’s go look for him. He probably got lost.”

They walk around the campus, calling for Rei, but he doesn’t answer. After a few minutes of searching, they do hear Rei’s voice—but in the form of a pained scream.

“That doesn’t sound good!” Tetsuo cries.

The three of them take off in the direction of the screams—the soccer field. They find Rei flat on his back across from Katagiri, and a holoscreen over his head shows his life points dropping zero, while one over Katagiri reads “win”.

“They dueled?” Yuma cries. She runs to Rei and helps him sit up. “Bro, you okay?”

Rei blinks up at her. “He was acting weird, I’m so sorry…” he says weakly. “I didn’t want him to hurt you.”

Yuma glares at Katagiri. “What’s your problem, dude?”

Katagiri laughs, and Yuma realizes that he’s got the same thing on his head that the gang member from yesterday had. “He wouldn’t tell me where you were, Tsukumo Yuma.”

“Christ, what a creep,” Yuma mutters. “Kotori, call the police.”

Katagiri laughs. “I hit your little friend with Barian world’s power, and now Yuma, I’ll do the same to you. I will do all in the name of Barian world!”

Yuma drops Rei and leaps to her feet. “Barian again?! Who in this school is working for them?!” She activates her duel disk. “Kotori, forget the police, this guy is mine!”

Astral appears next to Yuma. “Be careful,” he warns, “We still don’t know the full extent of the Chaos Xyz monsters.”

Yuma starts her turn by bringing out Numbers 34, but Katagiri starts his turn by bringing out an Xyz monster of his own, so Yuma knows he’s going to Chaos summon at some point.

But not before he tries some convoluted crap to get her to lose. He sends 1600 points of damage her way, but then ends up taking 800 himself. Apparently he’s a sore loser, so he then goes for the Chaos rank-up. The new Chaos monster destroys Numbers 34, and then Katagiri detaches all of its overlay units to make Yuma draw cards.

“If it’s a monster level 4 or lower, you take their attack as damage!”

Her first card deals her 1200 points of damage, but the next card is a magic. The third card gives her 1100 points of damage and leaves her with 100 life points.

Yuma is blown back, and Katagiri laughs like a maniac. Yuma gets to her feet and spits blood from her mouth—she bit her tongue, and this is the second time a servant of Barian world has made her face bleed.

“Prepare to feel Barian world’s power,” Katagiri says.

“We’ll see,” Yuma spits, almost frantic as she prepares to draw her final card.

“STOP!” Rei screams. He runs between Yuma and Katagiri. He’s almost in tears. “I don’t know what Barian world is, if you’re crazy or something, but please leave Yuma alone! I’ll give you whatever it is you want, she doesn’t deserve this!”

“So that means you should sacrifice yourself for me?!” Yuma asks, shoving Rei aside, “Like hell I’m letting you take any blows for me. I’m a big girl and I can take care of my own battles. Besides…” she grins, “I have faith in my deck.”

She draws her final card, and bursts out laughing. “Level three, zero attack!” She crows. “BOOYAH!”

She sends the card she just drew to the graveyard, and with that she attempts to send Katagiri’s monster back to his hand—and he uses the monster’s effect to prevent that from happening.

“You wasted your final chance!” Katagiri cries.

“That’s what you think!” Yuma shouts, “I play a trap! For each monster sent to the graveyard, you take 100 points of damage, and there are 18 monsters in both our graveyards! You lose 1800 life points, and your monster loses 1800 attack points!” And it’s not even her turn yet.

But when her turn does start, she’s geared up to fight. She brings out Hope, and then she levels it up to a Chaos Number—Hope Ray, which she powers up to have 4000 attack points.

Yuma strikes Katagiri, and she wins.

She takes off her d-gazer and brushes off her pants. “Well, that was refreshing,” she says dryly.

“YUMA!” Rei wails, running over. “Are you okay?! Here, get on my back, I’ll take you to the nurse!”

Yuma laughs and shoves Rei gently. “Oh hush, I’m fine.” Katagiri starts to stir, and Yuma panics. “But I don’t want to answer his questions. We’re gone, ya’ll!”

The four of them bail, and as they leave school grounds, Yuma gets a phone call from Ryoga.

“What’s up?” She asks.

“Rio’s been cleared to leave the hospital,” he reports, “But she’s got to rest at home for a few days.”

“Argh!” Yuma cries. “Oh well, I suppose her health is the most important thing.” She’ll just have to wait awhile before she can be classmates with Rio again.

As she hangs up, Rei turns to her. “Yuma, can we go back the way you showed me this morning? That restaurant we popped into looked cool.” He smiles. “And…I’ll treat you, since you ended up having to duel Katagiri anyway. I don’t know what was up with him, but I’m sorry I couldn’t keep him from getting to you.”

Yuma laughs. “Kid, I’m always down to eat, but you don’t have to be sorry for anything. Since you stuck your neck out for me, and you heard about Barian world anyway, I might as well fill you in.”

She won’t tell him _everything,_ of course, but she’ll tell him enough.

By the end of the day, Rei has been initiated into the numbers club. He enthusiastically vows to do everything he can to help defend against the Barians, and protect the Numbers, and repay Yuma for protecting him against a Barian-possessed duelist.

His way of repaying Yuma is by nominating her for class representative. Not exactly what Yuma had in mind, but she accepts the nomination because she doubts anyone will vote for her, and she doesn’t want to hurt Rei’s feeling by declining.

 

 

Yuma’s jaw drops as she eeks out a victory over Takashi. Never in a million years did she think anyone would actualy want her to be representative for anything. Now that she’s won, she’s…actually excited? This is such an honor! People actually like her, people who aren’t part of the Numbers club!

“Congratulations!” Rei cheers, grabbing her by the arm and shaking her.

Yuma beams and turns to Takashi, who looks crestfallen. “Hey, bro,” Yuma says, feeling her smile fade. “It was really close. You should be proud of yourself.”

Takashi gives her a strained smile. “Yeah. I have to…go.” He slinks out of the classroom, and Yuma makes to follow him, but she’s surrounded by her classmates.

“Yuma! Do you think you can get the dress code changed?”

“Hey Yuma, how about my petition to allow us to eat lunch outside?”

“Yuma, we really need new chairs in the library…”

Yuma laughs and holds up her hands. “One at a time, guys! Here’s what I want you all to do, write on the board your requests, and we’ll go through them one by one to decide what I’ll bring up at my first student council meeting.”

Kitano-sensei helps manage the flood of students who rush to the whiteboard, and Yuma takes notes, crossing off things she knows she can’t do, but giving attention to each concern. It’s not until after Kitano-sensei says that they really do need to get back to work that Yuma realizes Takashi never came back to the classroom.

 

 

Yuma is predictably running late to school the next day, but in her defense she was up all night organizing her classmates’ requests for change. She charges through the front gate of the school, and almost has a heart attack as a whistle goes off behind her. She shrieks, skids to a halt, and whirls around.

Takashi points at her, whistle dropping from his lips. “No running! And no screaming, either!”

Yuma holds her hands over her ears. “YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME GO DEAF?!” She screeches.

“More screaming!” Takashi says, as if he didn’t hear her. He holds out a slip. “Detention!”

Yuma takes the slip, staring down at it. “What?!”

“I’m chief disciplinarian now,” Takashi says pompously. “I’ll be making sure you obey the rules.”

A few students nearby have stopped to stare. Yuma considers making a scene, accusing Takashi of unfair enforcement, but she pockets the slip. “Okay,” she says coolly. “I’ll see you in class.” She turns and walks off, trying to control her rage. This isn’t the end of this, that’s for sure. She’s going to get Takashi for that.

Yuma really should have paid more attention to the handbook rules, as she’s apparently breaking a lot of them on a daily basis. She’s waiting for Takashi to say something about her wearing the boy’s uniform, and she’s prepared to remind him that that’s the one rule she actually did look up and is positive she’s NOT breaking. While Takashi doesn’t charge her with a uniform offense, she still ends up with almost ten demerits by the end of the day, and she’s not the only one, either. Throughout the day her classmates approach her to tell her about the detention slips they’ve gotten from Takashi. Even Kotori comes to her during last period and holds up a slip, tearfully saying that Takashi gave her detention for her skirt length.

“I’ve never gotten detention before in my life,” Kotori says.

“Well, it is kinda short,” Yuma says, “But I hardly think it warrants detention. A first offense should be merely a warning.”

Kotori sniffles. “I’ve never been so humiliated.”

Yuma’s blood boils and she puts her arm over Kotori’s shoulders. “Don’t worry kiddo, I’ll settle this.”

Yuma escorts Kotori to the detention hall, where a lot of first time offenders hover outside the door, looking anxiously at the rough-and-tumble students inside the hall, the ones who practically live in detention. Yuma waltzes into the room and sets her bag down on a nearby desk.

“Afternoon,” she greets as the students in the room stare at her. She looks around and sighs, “Dear me, there simply won’t be enough chairs in here for everyone.” She smiles sweetly at one boy. “Daichi, will you and Tomo help me rearrange the room?”

The boys jump up and do as Yuma asks. The students standing outside begin to trickle in. Yuma sits herself on top of a desk and looks around. “Is it stuffy in here?” She asks.

Another boy leaps up and opens a window. “Let’s air this place out,” he says.

By the time the teacher arrives to monitor the detention hall, Yuma is holding court. She’s dueling one of her classmates on a mat, and the surrounding students are cheering and clapping. Unbeknownst to the students, the teacher turns red in the face and leaves the room.

 

 

Of course, things quickly go back to normal when Yuma gets rid of the Barian influence being held on the student council president. All things considered, it’s not a hard duel. Yuma really needs to find out where the Barian is hiding in her school, because people keep falling under the influence of Barian world while in the building.

After the duel, Yuma accompanies Takashi to the council room so he can formally renounce his position as head disciplinarian. As Takashi is handing over his uniform, the Principal comes bursting into the room, sees Yuma, and points to her.

“Alright!” The Principal shouts, “Who gave this young woman detention?!”

Takashi raises his hand, and the Principal scowls. “You’re officially relieved of your position as disciplinarian.”

Takashi opens his mouth, and Yuma pinches his back. Takashi yelps, and the Principal says, loudly, “I don’t want to hear it young man. And anyone else who puts Tsukumo Yuma in that detention hall will be answering to me. If she has any problems, bring them to the attention of a teacher, but for god’s sake don’t put her in detention!”

The Principal leaves, and the remaining students gape at Yuma. Yuma links her arm with Takashi’s and says, “Guess that’s that then. We’ll be seeing you.” And she hauls him out of the room.

“What was that all about?” Takashi asks.

Yuma beams at him. “Don’t you know by now that I used to be in a duel gang? Those kids in detention are terrified of me because I kicked their butts in the past. They’re more afraid of me than any teacher-given punishments. Anyway, I’m not sure what’s happening with the Barians right now, but I have a feeling I won’t be able to fulfil my duties as class rep, so I’m going to give that job back to you. We need to go over the students’ requests, they have a lot of things they want to change.”

**Author's Note:**

> I think I might move updates to Saturdays only for the time being, I've been finding it hard to write this arc.


End file.
